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After following paper-pencil format for years, the All India Post Graduate Medical entrance (AIPGME) test for admission to all India 50 per cent quota is likely to be conducted online in December 2013. While the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is reluctant to conduct the exam, the government is all set to propose the National Board of examination (NBE) to conduct the exam online. “We will soon be approaching the standing council for seeking legal opinion as according to a judgment by SC, the test is to be conducted by AIIMS,” said a senior official in the Union health ministry. For the 15 per cent UG level seats, the same system will continue. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct the exam as it has been doing. In 2012, the government had introduced the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) which was conducted online for the first time by NBE. However, the Supreme Court had on July 18 quashed the Medical Council of India’s (MCI’s) notificati…

As per the directives of the Honourable Supreme Court in its judgment dated,25.9.87, in writ petition No. 348-352 of 1985, all the State Governments, Medical Institutions and Universities are required to amend their rules and regulations to introduce a uniform residency scheme by 1993
“A uniform practice has to be evolved so that the discipline would be introduced. We accordingly allow the present arrangement to continue for a period of five yearsI.e. upto 1992 inclusive. For admission beginning from 1993 there would be only onepattern. All Universities and institutions shall take timely steps to bring about such amendments as may be necessary to bring statutes, regulations, and rules obtaining in their respective institutions in accord with this direction before the end of 1991 so that there may be no scope for raising of any dispute in regard to the matter.The uniform pattern has to be implemented for 1993. It is proper that one uniform system is brought into vogue throughout the co…

A doctor refusing to work in a rural health care facility after getting a postgraduate degree from a state-run medical college could be penalised Rs 30 lakh from next year, three times the originally notified amount. There has been a rethink on the penalty since the health department issued a notification stating that all postgraduate medical students other than in-service candidates would need to execute a bond to work in a rural health care unit for at least a year, beginning the 2014-15 academic session. The bond amount had been fixed at Rs 10 lakh, which the government reviewed and found to be too little to act as a deterrent to opting out of the mandatory service period. “We are planning to increase the bond amount from Rs 10 lakh,” director of medical education Sushanta Banerjee told. Banerjee did not mention the quantum of increase but sources said the plan was to raise the penalty three-fold. Bengal apparently took the cue from Maharashtra, where the penalty of Rs 10 lakh has fa…

Last month, tragedy struck Bhargavi and Laisan Kanhar in Sambalpur district of Odisha. The tribal couple’s only child Banita who was in Class III fell into a hot egg curry cauldron at her school in Girischandrapur village while she waited for the midday meal.
The eight-year-old suffered severe burns and was rushed to the nearby primary health centre (PHC), where the only doctor was absent. The hospital staff applied first aid and referred her to the VSS Medical College and Hospital at Burla. However, there was no ambulance to take her to the hospital 72 km away. She finally reached there in a private vehicle nearly four hours after the accident. The same evening, she was again referred to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, nearly 300 km away. By next morning, Banita was declared dead at the hospital in Cuttack. There is only one doctor per 1,700 citizens in India; the World Health Organisation stipulates a minimum ratio of 1:1,000. There are 387 medical colleges in the co…

In the world's second most populous country, diseases of the heart are the biggest killers. The bigger tragedy is that the number of cardiac specialists graduating every year in India is a meagre 250. The concern among medicos today is not just the limited number of postgraduate seats available in the country's 381 medical colleges, it's also the skewed distribution of seats between subjects. The number of seats in clinical subjects that deal with patients directly is low, though they attract the most number of students. In the end, those who don't make it to these seats make do with para-clinical seats. It's worse for diabetics. Even when the country is heading towards becoming the diabetes capital of the world, we have only 50 PG seats in endocrinology. Not to forget that uncontrolled diabetes leads to kidney failure, heart failure and stroke. The US, on the other hand, has 250 PG seats in this subject. While the World Health Organization puts tuberculosis as the si…

At his plush diagnostic centre in central Bangalore, Dr S Suresh and his staff of 10 conduct X-rays, CT scans, etc for eight to 10 hospitals across the city. After 5 pm, it's time for teleradiology services, where another team of 10, armed with radiology diplomas, interpret test results for hospitals across the US. Six years earlier, Dr Suresh's parents had paid a capitation fee of Rs 1.5 crore to enable their only son to pursue his masters in radiology at a prominent college in Bangalore. They have no regrets - within three years, they got their money back, given that Dr Suresh's practice makes Rs 8 lakh per month. A recent TOI report on a postgraduate seat in radiology commanding a staggering Rs 4-crore capitation fee in Chennai has surprised some, but medical professionals are quick to point out that radiology is one of the most sought after specialties across the country. In Maharashtra, a radiology PG seat fetches a capitation fee of around Rs 1.45 crore; in Bangalore, c…

Is the medical education policy faulty? Yes. In India, 62% of the deaths occur due to non-communicable diseases like heart ailments, diabetes, stroke, complicated pregnancies, and accidents... and also suicides (due to psychiatric reasons). An MBBS doctor cannot deal with these diseases. Nine of the top 10 diseases affecting Indians are non-communicable ones. Out of 28 million pregnancies, 5.6 million require Caesarean operation but we don’t have enough gynaecologists, anaesthetists and radiologists. Every 10 minutes, a mother dies in India. Our mother mortality rate is only slightly better than the sub-Sahara countries. India definitely needs many more specialist doctors. Why has MCI failed to address these issues? Why didn’t you take any measures when you were at its helm?
MCI increases the seats but mainly in the non-clinical subjects. We need more clinicians. In 20…

It’s been more than two years since Sanjay Maru completed his MBBS course from a medical college in Mumbai. Despite enrolling himself at a coaching class and devoting at least 18 hours a day for two consecutive years, getting a postgraduate (PG) seat is still a distant dream for him. Sanjay is now preparing for the next exam on his own as he couldn’t ask his parents for giving Rs60,000 coaching fee. He says, “At 26, I am still a jobless man with total uncertainty about my career and life. While all my childhood friends completed their engineering degree, draw Rs6-8 lakh salary and got married too.” He doesn’t know how to handle the taunts when people ask his parents: “Why is he sitting at home despite being a doctor?” Over 47,600 MBBS students graduating every year from 381 medical colleges across the country undergo the same stressful-uncertain phase of their life.Reason: There are just 22,500 postgraduate seats for which they all have to fight, this includes the candidates passed in p…